Wednesday, 2 December 2015

Eyes are on Andros Townsend at the moment after his petulant outburst to a fitness coach and disciplinary action.He apologised and took his punishment on the chin. Since then he has been sitting on the bench and was asked to play for the Under-21 side against a Middlesborough side beaten only once all season. A cold wet night on the North East is a time for getting your head round the task and going your job. You read Ugo Ehiogu's words after the game and mentality training comes shining through again.

"This was always going to be a real footballing test. We spoke about that at the start. It was a bread and butter day, away from home after a six-hour coach trip and overnight stay, pouring rain, tough playing conditions and I thought we showed a lot of bravery on the ball to probe away and keep possession.

“We recovered well after going a goal down against the run of play. The players continue to make good strides. Our mentality is getting stronger and we’re getting harder to beat."

He then went on to pick out certain player including Andros Townsend to applaud their contribution.

"Andros’ contribution was excellent, always occupying two or three of their players and his attitude was first-class."

Townsend is wanted by Sam Allardyce at Sunderland and Steve Maclaren at Newcastle, while there is talk of WBA and Southampton as possible destinations should he leave. It would have been easy for him to go through the motions in this game so the fact his attitude was praised is encouraging. That will, of course, get to Pochettino's ear and there may be a reward next Thursday against Monaco. If there is then it is possibly the last chance saloon for him. If he doesn't feature then he is in the Aaron Lennon position last season, there is needed but not going to be used unless we have to.

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